LEADERS OF COUNCIL URGE MAYOR TO AMEND BUDGET

By CLYDE HABERMAN

Published: March 26, 1982

The City Council leadership called on Mayor Koch yesterday to alter his budget plans so New York City would not lose nearly 1,000 police officers, sanitationmen and fire marshals through gradual attrition in the next 15 months.

These reductions, coming right after an expansion of the uniformed forces over the last year, would create ''a roller-coaster effect'' that ''is bound to have an adverse impact on the morale of our citizens,'' the leaders said in a letter to the Mayor.

The letter was signed by Thomas J. Cuite, the Council majority leader, and Edward L. Sadowsky, the Finance Committee chairman. Although Mr. Koch has until April 26 to announce his formal budget for the 1983 fiscal year that starts on July 1, he has already signaled his intention to allow the municipal work force to shrink once again.

Cuts and Recession Cited

In fiscal 1982, the city has added many employees in critical services, such as an extra 2,300 police officers and 450 sanitationmen. But last January, in disclosing his preliminary budget plans for fiscal 1983, the Mayor said financial uncertainties created by Federal cuts and the recession made it unlikely the city would be able to keep all the new employees.

Thus, he said, the labor force would have to dwindle again - by 225 sanitationmen, 43 fire marshals and supervisors and 1,244 uniformed police officers, although 550 of those officers would be replaced in desk jobs by lower-paid civilians.

In seeking to retain these uniformed workers, the Council leaders adopted a familiar position in the annual three-way negotiations over a budget that must first be proposed by the Mayor and then adopted by the Council and Board of Estimate.

They argued that it would cost the city only $14.8 million in a budget of well over $15 billion to keep the sanitationmen, fire marshals and 694 police officers who would not be replaced by civilians. In addition, they urged the Mayor to scrap a proposed cut of $1.75 million for libraries and to abandon his request for an increase in annual tuition charges at the City University from $925 to $1,025. 'There May Be Some Changes'

Officials of the Koch administration said it was too early to tell if their budget proposals next month would reflect the Council leaders' views or if they would leave any adjustments to later negotiations. However, Deputy Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. said, ''There may be some changes.''

With their letter, the Council officials intensified a debate over whether Mr. Koch's budget planners have understated the amount of revenue likely to be at their disposal in fiscal 1983.

The Mayor says that a variety of actions, including service cuts and $171 million in new taxes, are needed to correct an imbalance of $854 million in his 1983 budget.

But Mr. Cuite and Mr. Sadowsky said: ''There are signs which cause us today to make a less gloomy assessment.'' They noted that, for all his predictions of hard times in 1983, Mr. Koch had forecast in January that the city would end fiscal 1982 on June 30 with a 757 million surplus. A month later, he raised that estimate to $120 million. The Council leaders say they expect the final figure to exceed $200 million.

That opinion is also shared by the City Comptroller, Harrison J. Goldin. Last week, Mr. Goldin reported that in the first eight months of fiscal 1982, tax revenues rose by 9.2 percent above last year's - a faster pace than the 7 percent increase that the Mayor envisions for all of 1982.